Unexpected visitor downrange

Antigun politician wandered out from behind the backstop during a match. Federal Ministers are a protected species, even if most see them as feral pests, so he was escorted from the range.

Had a rabbit run across the front of the mound during a 300m prone shoot. 70 guns on the line, each fell silent as it came across. The range is a fauna reserve. More important, a shot at the bunny was a 10 point miss.

Here in Carson City, NV, we have a herd of wild mustangs who wander across the range backstop at around 400 yards. We don't shoot horses here.

I've had to stop shooting several times to chase deer or turkey off the range. They get used to the noise.

Had to call a cease fire once as a momma turkey brought her brood on a walking tour of the foot of the berm on the pistol range. Left to right, just ambling along.

I've seen deer at our local gun club very early in which absolutely no shooting is to take place before 0900. They must have some sort of timepiece... somewhere...

As a RSO on my local range i have called cease fire numerous times for deer, squirrels, and other assorted critters.

We have rabbits, squirrels, deer, etc. on our outdoor range all the time.

I love it. And no, I would never hurt one. Yes I hunt, but I leave them at the range in peace.

Deaf

We have had several types of wildlife on the range over the years. Deer, turkeys, rabbits, coyotes, the neighbors cat (that likes to sun himself on top of the berm behind the pistol range), and crows are most often seen with regularity. I was not there at the time but there was even a report of a porcupine ambling across the middle of the skeet range when there was a competition going on once. FWIW the local wildlife seems to get used to the noise/activity and basically it just becomes normal noise to them. I do not recall anyone ever shooting the wildlife on the range property either despite any official rule preventing us from doing so. I feel this speaks volumes about the morality of local firearms owners/range members.

Kangaroos grazing on a trap range, ignoring the guns going off within 50 meters.

Fairly common at my GC.....you can also see,on occasion, Rams in the rocks above it!
Dan

Both of the clubs that I belong to are wildlife reserves. I have seen a few critters cross the range and had to cease fire.

This is a true incident that happened to me a long.time ago. I was on the outdoor.shooting range doing.our Departments annual firearms quualification. When we walked up to the berm to score our targets there was a dead rabbit laying at the base of my target stand. I had shot it three times plum center of.mass. I argued unsuccessfully that I should be given a 30 point bonus on my score.

Morning at the club, I was getting ready to fire a round @ 100 yds. Out of the corner of my eye I see something coming down and this big tom turkey lands in front of my target. I had a 4" oragge spot on the backer board and his head was outlined perfectly. Anothe one or so pounds on the trigger and it would have been a perfect head shot. Finally I had to start walking out to shoo it off.

And here in SE Arizona...

we sometimes have to shoo Gila monsters from under the benches (they aren't easily shoo'd)- rattlesnakes are common visitors, too. And the local Mule deer circulate in family groups of up to 9 or 10 both in front and behind the firing line.

PRD1 - mhb - Mike

Fairly common at my GC.....you can also see,on occasion, Rams in the rocks above it!

Click to expand...

Buffalo Creek?

Nope, Clear Creek County.....Idaho Springs.
Dan

Ive seen a lot of that but I can't look out my kitchen window without seeing 4 or 5 deer. The rock pit I go shooting at has deer roaming around all over the place.

When I was in Basic Training I saw two deer run across the automatic fire range at Fort Leonard Wood. They made it about half way and then thy had to shut the range down for cleanup.

In a small but beautifull little country in Europe, called Switzerland, there are 300 m ranges from mountaintop to mountaintop, and they don't bother to close the road in the valley when they are shooting, so there is 'homo sapiens' on the range

When I was there, the Swiss Army had a range about 100-meters on one side of the local 4-lane, and the targets were ~200 meters away, across the road, on the side of a hill. Never heard of any accidents, either.

Had a pair of white tails walk over the hill about 25 yards away to watch WHILE a sporting clays match was in progress. Fire was going in their general direction (at flying clay birds). They watched a few seconds then turned around and left.

About twenty years ago, I was shooting the NRA Midwinter matches in Tampa, FL. A bird had a nest right in the middle of the pistol range. So we put up a couple of wind flags around the nest...and everybody carefully walked around the nest and chicks for an entire week.

I often shoot on the silhouette range at Ben Avery Shooting Facility (north of Phoenix, AZ) and it isn't unusual to have wild burros show up on the range. One range trip with a friend I wet out to reset rams on the small bore range (100M) and when I turned around there were four burros between me and the firing line. My friend that was at the firing line said he didn't see where they came from. We figure they must have been on the 1,000 yd range to the east of us and walked up over the side berm.

Gambel's quail are an everyday occurrence, too.